The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for counting pollen grains floating in the atmosphere.
As a method of counting pollen grains in the atmosphere, a real-time measuring method based on grain-diameter measurement utilizing light scattering has been developed, and a measuring apparatus based on this method is attracting attention.
This method, however, identifies pollen only through the grain size and therefore there is the problem of not necessarily quantifying pollen.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus which enable only pollen existing in the atmosphere to be automatically quantified.
The present inventors have achieved the present invention by focusing on the characteristics of pollen and its detection by self-fluorescence, resulting to the solution of the above-described problem.
In a first aspect of the present invention, it is provided a pollen grain-counting method comprising separating particles other than those substantially smaller than pollen grains, contained in a given amount of atmosphere, causing the separated particles to flow through a flow cell in such a state that self-fluorescence from each of the particles can be measured, measuring self-fluorescence from each of the particles passing through the flow cell, and counting the number of particles based on a measured value (also referred to as the method of the present invention, hereinafter).
In the method of the present invention, separating is preferably performed by a virtual impactor. Also, scattered light is preferably measured together with the self-fluorescence, and the scattered light to be measured preferably includes forward scattered light and side scattered light. Also, the number of particles is preferably counted based on a ratio of a blue component and a red component of measured self-fluorescence.
In a second aspect of the invention, it is provided a pollen-counting apparatus comprising a separating means of separating particles other than those substantially smaller than pollen grains, contained in a given amount of atmosphere, a fluidizing means of causing the separated particles to flow through a flow cell in such a state that self-fluorescence from each of particles can be measured, a measuring means of measuring self-fluorescence from each of the particles passing through the flow cell, a counting means of counting the number of particles based on a measured value, and an outputting means of outputting a count result (also referred to as the apparatus of the present invention, hereinafter).
In the apparatus of the present invention, the separating means is preferably a virtual impactor. Also, the measuring means preferably comprises means of measuring scattered light, and more preferably a means of measuring forward scattered light and a means of measuring side scattered light. It is also preferred that the measuring means comprises a means of measuring a blue component and a red component of the self-fluorescence.